Life Game In Other World
Chapter 762: Going Home (Long - for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 762: Chapter 762: Going Home (Long Chapter for Monthly Votes)

The morning sun glistened on the crisp snow, as the skinny figure of the boy moved through the shadows beneath the alleyway, carefully scanning his surroundings.

Although a day and two nights had passed, bullet casings embedded in the ground, not covered by snow, and damaged walls still told the tale of the fierce battle that had occurred that night.

Eventually, He Ao’s footsteps halted at the exit of the alleyway. He squatted down, brushing away the snow with his thin palms, revealing a large patch of bloodstained snow in his field of vision.

He was silent for a moment, then lifted his head to look forward.

Vehicles passed by in front of him, revealing the wide but worn street before his eyes.

Just the night before last, Yiluo had ’passed by’ this street in an SUV with his parents.

He had ’seen’ his parents fall before him, watched as their bloodied bodies lay in front of the speeding SUV.

This nearby area was supposed to be the rendezvous point agreed upon by his father and brother, which is why the SUV had headed in this direction.

But his parents never made it to the rendezvous point, and Yiluo’s SUV was damaged and didn’t stop there either.

Thus, they had ’passed by’ each other on this street.

Yiluo saw his parents for the last time.

He Ao sniffed, blinked, and then stood up from the ground, turning his eyes to look around.

The corpses of his parents were not here, either taken away by the Scavengers or lost to some mishap.

Logically speaking, with the snowfall yesterday, the efficiency of the Scavengers in the chaotic Aka District shouldn’t be that high.

Perhaps he should ask someone who lives nearby.

This was not some abandoned area but a normal residential zone. Even with bullets raining down outside the windows like a storm, it was unlikely that the inhabitants would leave their homes to go elsewhere.

With such commotion that night, there should have been eyewitnesses.

There were no outdoor cameras around, some shops along the street were closed, most of them with leasing signs posted up, suggesting that business in this area wasn’t so good.

Only a few chain stores further away were still open.

However, the staff at chain stores usually worked in shifts, so the current employees might not have been working that night. Moreover, such stores would have their employees shut the fully-sealed gates during a crisis, making it uncertain if they could witness anything outside.

Even so, He Ao had run over to ask around, and the results were mostly that those were not the employees who had worked that night.

Only one chain convenience store employee had been there that night, a young woman with chestnut-colored hair.

She said she heard the sound of moving objects after the gunfire ended, but at that time, she had locked the gate and was too scared to open the door, so she didn’t know exactly what happened.

That employee also asked He Ao if he was lost, looking for his parents, and offered to help, but He Ao politely declined.

Soon, He Ao was contemplating heading back to the entrance of the alley.

If he couldn’t get any information from the nearby shops, he would have to consider finding some brave souls who were active nearby.

"Damn Puppy Gang, these guys even took all the bullet casings they could find. They really don’t leave any way for us to make a living."

Just as He Ao was deep in thought, a string of curses echoed from deep within the alley.

He Ao looked up, gazing ahead, just in time to see a group of youth, their faces inked with tattoos, searching for something and heading his way.

At the same time, the youth spotted him as well.

The leader of the group glanced at He Ao, pulled out a switchblade from his pocket, and quickly walked over, smiling at He Ao, "What’s up, kid, what are you doing here?"

Then, he glanced at the wristband He Ao was wearing, "Got any money on you? How about you transfer some cash for us to spend?"

He Ao turned his head, looking at him with a touch of confusion.

"Didn’t fucking hear me, huh?"

The youth unfolded the switchblade and flaunted it in front of He Ao. "This is a stickup, understand? Hand it over!"

"Boss, this seems to be just a kid. He probably doesn’t have any money, right?"

A slightly chubby follower behind the youth cautiously chimed in.

"What do you know?"

Spitting contemptuously, the youth looked at He Ao and shouted,

"Look at this brat, soft and tender skin, so pale and delicate, clearly the young master from a wealthy family.

"Look at the clothes he’s wearing, this red dye is so intense, I’ve never seen a pigment that resembles blood so much. It looks high-end for sure; this little punk definitely has money."

Wielding the switchblade in front of He Ao, he gestured, "Cough up the money, kid, or your parents will have to. Do it quick! Haven’t you heard that a child shouldn’t wander alone? I’m gonna teach you a lesson today."

"Boss," at this point, another follower behind the youth said, "On him, it actually seems to be... blood... "

"Huh?"

The youth was taken aback.

And in that instant, He Ao raised his hand, grasped the youth’s wrist, twisted, and flung.

The switchblade dropped from the youth’s hand instantly, landing in He Ao’s other hand. Right after, He Ao’s force carried the assailant through a backflip in the air, face down to the ground with a smack.

Before he could even cry out in pain, the switchblade He Ao caught was flung, with a ’whizz’ sound it embedded into the ground right next to his neck.

The sharp blade of the switchblade was pressed against his skin, and any slight movement would result in his neck being sliced open.

At this moment, the youth felt his mind go blank. He couldn’t comprehend how such a kid could possess such strength, how he could have been subdued in an instant.

He wanted to call for help, only to shockingly realize that his followers had scattered like smoke, running off without a trace the moment he hit the ground face first.

He tried to struggle, but one hand was firmly clamped by the teenager, his twisted arm pinning his body.

Suddenly, he heard an icy voice from behind, "I ask, you answer."

The voice was youthful yet hoarse—something that should have held no menacing power, but it was like a whisper piercing the soul, making him shiver instinctively.

A chill climbed up his spine in an instant; he wasn’t sure if it came from the snow on the ground or the teenager’s voice.

His body shuddering, he wanted to nod, but as soon as his neck moved, he felt the cold blade of the switchblade, and he tensely froze again.

"You’re picking things up in this alley?"

He Ao didn’t wait for the youth’s response and asked rapidly, "Picking up what?"

"Bullet casings, man,"

The youth hesitated, then before He Ao could inquire further, he started spilling the beans, "The night before last, it seemed like there was a security company clash here. We came to see if they’d left behind anything they didn’t want—stuff like bullet casings that can be sold for quite a bit."

"You only found out about this today?"

He Ao continued questioning.

"The night before last, we knew by that night, but we couldn’t beat the nearby Puppy Gang. We had to wait until they finished scavenging before coming here."

The youth replied quickly.

"Were you here the other night? Did you see any dead bodies?"

He Ao asked in a low voice.

"It seemed like..."

The youth paused, as if pondering.

"Hmm?"

He Ao slightly raised his eyebrows as he applied force with his hands.

"Ah! Yes! Yes! There is!"

The young man cried out in pain, "At that time, I was hiding in the alley across the street, and I saw a group of people in black suits, who seemed to be from the security company involved in the gunfight, removing all the bodies."

"All the bodies?" He Ao asked calmly, "Bodies from both sides of the conflict were taken away? Do you know who the parties involved were?"

"It seemed like they were all taken away. The clothes on the bodies were different, all loaded onto vehicles. But I couldn’t recognize who was who; it was too chaotic, and I hardly dared to poke my head out,"

the young man said carefully.

He Ao fell into a brief silence.

Combined with what the convenience store clerk had mentioned about the sound of things being moved, it appeared that the people who attacked his parents indeed took away his parents’ ’remains’.

Theoretically, in such a battle, one would only take away the remains of their own side, since each additional body would entail additional burial costs.

Unless, the bodies were useful to them.

"Brother, brother, I was wrong, please forgive me, brother,"

the young man, hearing that He Ao had stopped asking questions, said carefully and tremblingly.

"Scram."

He Ao released his hold.

"Thank you, brother, thank you. May you find money during your walks, encounter wealthy ladies, win the lottery, and live a hundred years."

The young man felt the restraints on him loosen and immediately got up, uttering blessings like a litany, and without looking back, he scurried away, rolling and crawling into the depths of the alley.

He Ao watched his retreating figure, found it funny without making a sound, and then he turned his head back, looking towards the busy street.

The case his parents encountered this time seemed different from that of the Kavi couple in the last Copy World.

The people who attacked his parents were not after them because they came into contact with something; they targeted his parents for who they were.

The eye of the storm was not an object but his parents themselves.

He Ao lifted his wristband and called an unmanned taxi.

He first visited the ’brother’s’ accident site and found similar results as with his parents’ case—no ’remains’ were left behind, it seemed all were taken away.

Then he took another taxi, setting his destination to the northern side of the Aka District, where Yiluo’s ’home’ was.

Northern Aka District, compared to the southern side, had better environment and public order. Although it doesn’t compare to the wealthy Cloud District, it’s still considered one of the more ’livable’ areas in Wint City.

In the taxi, He Ao received a message from Vili.

When Vili had given her personal business card to him, he had also given Vili his own.

Vili: [Yiluo, your snowboard and harpoon are still with me; do you need to leave them here?]

He Ao glanced at the message and quickly replied: [I’ll come get them later.]

His ’little coffin board’ was still too bulky, not convenient for carrying around, as he first needed to confirm some things before recovering it.

Vili replied promptly: [Okay]

He Ao put down his wristband and lifted his head to look forward.

The Aka District didn’t have too many high-rise buildings. Narrow and low old buildings were scattered on either side of the streets. Apart from chain convenience stores, the most common sights on the streets were the sparkling advertising screens of house rental agencies hanging over the entrances to their shops.

Photos of neatly decorated rental properties kept flashing on the advertising screens, with seemingly striking price tags below them.

Below the advertising screens, along the streets, were continuous, snow-covered, old tents.

On the big screen in the nearby mall, a gracefully dressed female presenter with a svelte figure was facing the camera and delivering the news,

"United Industries recently signed a third-quarter energy mineral supply order with Rockville Energy Group,

"It is reported that after two years of vigorous development, the Federation’s demand for energy has significantly increased, with the prices of helium-3 and deuterium expected to continue to rise within the year.

"Wint City, as the largest producer of energy minerals in the Federation, may also benefit from this price increase."

"Vincent, the CEO of United Industries, stated that United Industries will continue to increase its investment in the Storm Sea and intensify the extraction of helium-3, to meet the Federation’s growing energy demands as much as possible.

"Citizens who already hold shares in United Industries can continue to buy more shares, and as one of the top profit-making public companies in the entire Federation, United Industries will not let you down."

Just below the giant screen of the mall, a snow-covered tent shivered slightly under the weight of the snow.

An elderly man with white hair pushed aside the tent flap, looked up at the screen where the excited female presenter was speaking, shook off the heavy snow from the tent, then retreated inside and covered the flap.

The autonomous taxi slowly drove down street after street, its tires crunching over the icy road.

After a journey of half an hour, He Ao arrived at a relatively tidy neighborhood.

He got out of the car and looked around at these buildings that were extremely familiar yet blurred in his memory.

This place was about one street away from the Yiluo family home. He Ao did not go straight home but began to slowly wander around the neighborhood.

His gaze meticulously swept over every possible surveillance spot and carefully observed every suspicious individual.

Eventually, he ascertained one thing.

There were no people monitoring the vicinity of his home, nor were there any signs of fire at his place.

Then, he calmly walked back to the apartment building where he lived.

For those who attacked the Yiluo family, there seemed to be nothing of interest in the Yiluo home itself; their main focus had always been on the ’people’ in the house.

A family of four, three members were dead, their bodies taken by the attackers, and one child, a human vegetable lying in a coffin, had fallen into the perilous Storm Sea, with people sent after to kill him.

Considering the optimal allocation of resources, He Ao could not think of a reason why anyone would plant a spy in the Yiluo home.

The biggest doubt in this matter was, why would they send a D-level Mechanically Modified Person and a ’devotee’ capable of unleashing near C-level combat power, affecting the monsters in the Storm Sea, to pursue a vegetative child who had fallen into the Storm Sea.

He Ao arrived in front of his house, leaned against the wall behind the door, and placed his hand on the fingerprint lock.

This fingerprint lock was very old; it seemed to be the one Yiluo once used to register his fingerprint.

Click—

With a soft sound, the fingerprint lock disengaged, and He Ao pushed open the front door.

But he didn’t enter immediately; instead, he quietly waited by the wall next to the door for a while.

After confirming there was no attack, he finally stepped into the house.

The living room was arranged as usual, the air was cool, and a half-cup of coffee that had completely cooled was on the dining table, seemingly belonging to his brother.

The blanket on the sofa was crumpled, as if the person who left had done so in a hurry.

He Ao closed the front door and walked into the study.

Directly opposite the study’s door was a sturdy metal pedestal, where Yiluo’s ’Nutrient Pod’ used to reside.

He Ao shifted his gaze away from this metal pedestal, moved to the desk, and turned on his father’s computer.

He then stared at the password entry screen and typed in ’1216’.

This was Yiluo’s birthday.

With a ’ding’, the computer’s lock screen slowly unlocked.